Moving back to Dubai after 22 years has been an experience! Back then we didn't have the internet or blogs. Now we do I can jot down my thoughts on daily life, things we come up against, things we enjoy, the multi-national society, the laws, the weather...plus other things in general which catch my attention.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Doing things in Dubai

It'll be very familiar to everyone living here, but possibly an eye-opener to the people outside who read our blogs to find out the reality of living in Dubai. My last few days have been typical of trying to do something in Dubai.

My Residence Visa is due for renewal, which of course means a medical report - a blood test is required.

My sponsor has a small list of clinics from which they will accept reports, the nearest to me being in Jebel Ali Village. I used that last time, it was small, friendly and efficient so I decided to use it again.

The first problem is that working hours are shortened because it's Ramadan, so an early start is the obvious thing. But the RTA-created gridlock in Dubai Marina makes that not an option. I've been talking about that for a while now and it's getting no better, so rather than spending unproductive time sitting in the traffic jam we've been working at home until after 9am to let the worst of it thin out.

(To give you an example of the problem, yesterday Mrs Seabee needed to be at the Dubai Metropolitan on Sheikh Zayed Road at 8am. The taxi she'd ordered for 7am was on time - and it took one and a half hours to travel the first one kilometre in the Marina. She eventually arrived at the Met at eight forty-five - nearly two hours to do a thirty minute trip).

Anyway, back to my medical report. Leaving it to later I fought the marginally better traffic to take Mrs Seabee to her office in Knowledge Village, then headed off to Jebel Ali Village.

The clinic is closed. Shut down. No longer operating. A piece of paper stuck to the door says we have to go to the clinic 'next to Satwa Post Office'.

It's too late now to try that, so I schedule it for tomorrow.

Tomorrow dawns, the usual gridlock-avoiding late start, drop Mrs Seabee at her office and head off for Satwa. The usual traffic snarl, an hour to get along Satwa Road.

There are more than two hundred people, mainly labourers, jammed around the clinic. I can't even get to the door so I give up.

I call my sponsor to check which other clinics I can go to. Iranian Hospital is the nearest choice so I decide to schedule that for the next day.

Today was the next day so I headed back up Al Wasl Road this morning, heavy traffic but moving. I found a parking space at the side of the hospital, was dripping because of today's awful humidity by the time I got to Reception.

A pleasant, smiling, helpful lady directed me to the Blood Test Clinic. The less smiley but equally helpful lady at reception there told me she needed a copy of my passport and Residence Visa plus a passport photo. I always carry plenty of those with me when I try to do anything in Dubai so I handed them over, with my Health Card.

She stapled it all to some forms which included a ticket with a queue number on it. It also had a note that I should expect to be called at a very precise 11.23 (it was now 11.05).

This is one of the huge improvements in Dubai. Until very recently all such places were a huge indisciplined rugby scrum of people pushing and shoving, waving papers about, climbing over others to get to the counter.

We all sat in an orderly manner and I was called to the counter at 11.20.

A small bit of computer work, a form with numbers and stuff on it, pay Dh250 and I was directed to the Blood Test room. Straight into the chair, blood taken, that's it, off you go.

My form tells me to collect my report at 11.30am on Thursday. I had noticed a section of the counter with a sign 'Reports' above it, so that seems to be well organised.

At just after 11.30 I was headed back to the car.

In the end, after all the aggravation of the previous days, a few minutes was all it took.

17 comments:

Its a shame they shut that hospital/clinic at Jebel Ali Village. I did my blood test there this year and was looking forward to going there the next year.

It was such a pleasant experience going there. It wasn't a really fancy clinic, but I simply loved it and the location too. Its a shame they are going to bring down JA Village too. Its such a nice place, way better than any of the new developments. Green grass, flowers, bee hives and the sound of water sprinklers.

JA Clinic closed?!!! It was only a couple of years ago that they spent several million whatevers on a big fancy digital X-Ray machine! What about JA Club? I'd heard rumours that was about to close, and I know the school is building new premises.

Once again, bits of charming 'Old Dubai' are thoughtlessly ripped down to be replaced by soulless developments.

Had a good lauch about your comment about how you carry copies of the PP. There is little one can do without a copy of the PP and visa page!!! I have copies of my passport all over the place. Office desk, car, work bag, at home, gym bag.... everywhere!!

If I had to work for the RTA, I'd become even more suicidal than they already make me feel.Yes, Jebel Ali Village is going, and it's so sad to see. Residents have left, and the main casualties are once again the animals: apparently over 200 pets have simply been left behind to fend for themselves (propably by residents that have been forced to now live in an apartment, because they're budget won't allow them a similar nice villa anywhere else in Dubai.) There's a lady in JA trying to trap and rescue the cats and dogs... there was a story in the 7Days.

The everlasting construction, development redevelopment, the almost 24/7 traffic snarl, the heat, humidiity, not to mention the stress of trying to get things done, the incompetence of some of the authorities, the constant complaints about the RTA, obviously run by lunatics.

Live there, not for me, visit to friends and out of sheer curiosity,yes.

I feel the good things about Dubai are outwweighed by the above.

I am quick to point out that we have our problems in Oz, before anyone else does, but if I couldn't live here, the peace and tranquility of the Hawaiian Islands would be my choice.

NZM, that's a clinic accepted by Tecom for its Res Visa sponsorship. Regardless of what DNRD says they will accept, the government-owned organisations seem to each have an abitrary list of which clinics they'll use.

ZTG, not just in JA are animals abandoned, people leaving Dubai, or just going on holiday, simply leave their animals on the streets. We have an animal cruelty law now of course, but most people abandoning them seem to get away with it.

Caz, if 'peace and tranquility' are the objective, then any city is the wrong place to choose - and I include Honolulu in that!

Sam, that's not an option when your sponsor will only accept medical reports from places they specify.

Caz, the same applies in Dubai - if I sit on the beach all day it's all peace and tranquility. In Sydney sit in the Botanic Garden on the harbour, in London stay in Hyde Park. The reality is that doing things in and moving around any city doesn't relate to peace and tranquility. It's a trade-off against the buzz, the excitement, the facilities, the employment opportunities.

About Me

We lived in Dubai from 1977 to 1984, visited on a couple of holidays, then moved back again in 2005. We came because we wanted to watch the incredible development as it happened and we moved back to Oz in 2011.
I now blog on Life in Oz and the link is on my last post here.
I welcome comments & debate on the blog, but insults are unnecessary and inappropriate. I will delete any which are libel, racist, obscene, advertising or which are simply to make a point but are completely off-subject. If you want to do that, create your own blog. Oh, and I've decided to add a new category to the delete list because there are too many of them left on blogs - stupid comments.
If you want to use my photos or quote from my posts you may do so - but only if you credit the source and give a link back to my original post.